Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1988
Catalogue Essay
Keith Haring's arrival in Milan in 1984, at the invitation of fashion designer Elio Fiorucci and art dealer Salvatore Ala, was an extraordinary event. In the mid-eighties Haring represented the peak of a new wave of artists. His art was addressing underground culture and focusing on an issue that would transform the nightlife of New York and around the world: the AIDS epidemic. Vibrant, fresh and committed to his own generation, Haring was able to reach many different audiences at the same time. Haring is arguably more iconic than anybody else within his generation - his visual language is immediately unmistakable, like the golden arches of of McDonalds or the curvaceous script of Coca-Cola. Haring's capacity to communicate transformed his art into a marketing tool for the culture of those years.

In Milan, the core of the night life was a club called Plastic - run by the charismatic figure of Nicola Guiducci. Guiducci was a DJ and entrepreneur who made Plastic the place to be for writers, photographers, fashion designers and artists. The affinity between Haring and Guiducci was natural as they both shared the same energy. Every night when Keith Haring had finished working on his exhibition at Salvatore Ala Gallery he went to Plastic to hang out until dawn with his partner and friend Guiducci. While DJing, Guiducci's body language resembled one of Haring's figures- hectic, happy and full of open desires. The exchanges between Haring and Guiducci became deeper and deeper both at a cultural and creative level. Nicola Guiducci became a regular at Haring’s studio in lower Manhattan and in 1988 during one of Guiducci’s visits Haring gifted him with the present lot. The image, in its essential form, reflects symbolically the fecundity (both sexual and artistic) that the two friends were sharing. Guiducci remembers that once he accepted the gift he had to carry it through Soho and the Lower East Side like a sandwich man advertising the art of his friend. An image that very much matches the spirit of Haring moving around among people, sharing his power and message to heal and change the illnesses of the society.

In Haring’s mind, like an artist from a Paleolithic cave, a man blooming out of a phallus was the most effective symbol for regeneration and creativity. Through his work Keith Haring was professing his belief that through the intercourse between art and people a happier world could be created and healed from the evils of repression and hypocrisy.
Artist Biography
Keith Haring
American • 1958 - 1990
Haring's art and life typified youthful exuberance and fearlessness. While seemingly playful and transparent, Haring dealt with weighty subjects such as death, sex and war, enabling subtle and multiple interpretations.

Throughout his tragically brief career, Haring refined a visual language of symbols, which he called icons, the origins of which began with his trademark linear style scrawled in white chalk on the black unused advertising spaces in subway stations. Haring developed and disseminated these icons far and wide, in his vibrant and dynamic style, from public murals and paintings to t-shirts and Swatch watches. His art bridged high and low, erasing the distinctions between rarefied art, political activism and popular culture.
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10

Keith Haring

Untitled

signed, titled and dedicated '© K Haring 88 May 1988, "FOR NICOLA WITH LOVE + ADMIRATION - Keith"' on the overlap
acrylic on canvas
126 x 97 cm (49 5/8 x 38 1/4 in.)
Painted in 1988.

Estimate
£300,000 - 400,000

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
+44 207 318 4063

Henry Highley
Head of Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4061

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 5 October 2016

1
Thomas Schütte
Kleiner Geist (Little Spirit) (Yellow)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £125,000
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2
Michaël Borremans
The Shirt
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £173,000
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3
Ugo Rondinone
SUNRISE. east. march
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
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4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,805,000
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5
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (White Butterfly Hawaiian Lapis)
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,265,000
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6
Mark Bradford
Rat Catcher of Hamelin III
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡
Sold for £3,733,000
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7
Mark Bradford
Click
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £665,000
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8
Sean Scully
Grey Red
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £665,000
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9
Andy Warhol
20 Pink Mao's
Estimate £4,000,000 - 6,000,000 ‡
Sold for £4,741,000
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10
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000
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11
Andy Warhol
Dollar Sign
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡
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12
This lot is no longer available.
13
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (767-2)
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,085,000
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14
Albert Oehlen
Amber
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £269,000
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15
Günther Förg
Untitled
Estimate £90,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £149,000
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16
Anselm Kiefer
Odi Navali
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡♠
Sold for £605,000
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17
Antony Gormley
Mountain and Sea
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £401,000
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18
Antony Gormley
Field II
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £221,000
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19
Damien Hirst
Figures in a Landscape
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠†
Sold for £305,000
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20
Damien Hirst
Untitled #2 (Spot Painting)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £509,000
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21
Bridget Riley
KA 2
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £293,000
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22
Emilio Vedova
Presenza N7V
Estimate £120,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £185,000
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23
Joe Bradley
Egyptian Freek
Estimate £90,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £125,000
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24
Sterling Ruby
SP33
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
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25
This lot is no longer available.
26
Gary Hume
Rose
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £62,500
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27
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
$
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 Ω♠
Sold for £87,500
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28
Andy Warhol
Electric Chair
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 †
Sold for £143,000
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29
Ai Weiwei
Colour Jar
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 †
Sold for £137,000
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30
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Don Judd colorist) 5
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 †
Sold for £118,750
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London Auction 5 October 2016

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Keith Haring

10

Keith Haring

Untitled

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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